Children at a primary school took on a challenge set by a football club as part of a healthy lifestyle initiative — and surprised everyone by beating their target 20 times over.

The aim was for Leamington Primary Academy youngsters in Sutton to run a total of 25km during the lunchbreak challenge, echoing the distance between the school and the City Ground, home of Nottingham Forest Football Club.

Taking part in the Nottingham Forest Community Trust (NFCT) project were Years 3, 4, 5 and 6, children, who all managed to reach their targets, running laps in their own bubble.

Oli Tatterson, PE lead at the school, said: “The children went on to surpass the target set, totalling a whopping 523km in all. We are so proud of the children’s efforts.

“It is so important for them to lead a healthy active lifestyle and seeing smiles on their faces every day in PE is brilliant.”

Oli said that following the national coronavirus lockdown, the team at Leamington decided that keeping children active had become even more important.

“The programme we set promoted a healthy and active lifestyle for children and, with help from the Nottingham Forest Community Trust, we have created a real focus on this,” he added.

“The day of the challenge was a real highlight and a fantastic day. The children learnt about the importance of having a healthy balanced diet in workshops with the inspirational coaches from the trust before embarking upon the challenge.

“Everyone was completely blown away with the determination and resilience shown by all KS2 classes, who not only managed to successfully complete the challenge — they totally smashed it. I would like to thank the coaches from Nottingham Forest Community Trust and say a huge well done to all pupils and staff at Leamington.”